Perth Voice Interactive

WINSTON CHURCHILL labelled his depression a “black dog” that followed him around.

Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham personifies his as, “an unconvincing drag queen”.

The gold-medallist, Australia’s only openly gay athlete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, brings his autobiographical stage show Twists and Turns to Perth to open the Pride parade eve this Friday, November 20.

“[The show] goes through my childhood, which is quite unusual,” he tells us. “I grew up a single child with a nut-job mum who was a single parent who made it very interesting.”

He says addressing his history of mental illness (and using an avatar of an unconvincing drag queen) “makes it much easier to listen to”. While well-known for diving he’s long been interested in the stage: “I’m gay so show business is in my blood,” he jokes, saying he “slid out of the womb with jazz hands”.

He says a pretty diverse group of people has come to previous shows and “it’s well received unanimously”.

“I’ve had grandmas, an old married couple coming together.

“You always get the teenage fangirls who love it, you get all the gays who love it, so it has wide appeal.

“The thing that transcends age and demographic is the whole mental health aspect, depression and addiction. Whether people have addictions to drugs or obsessive behaviours like eating or being obsessive about their looks, I think everybody has a moment in their life where they’re concerned their behaviour is getting out of hand.” While still doing 10 diving sessions a week he says, “this cabaret is a wonderful mental break from diving”.

The two shows are at 6pm and 8pm at Connections in Northbridge, with tickets via ticketbooth.com.au

by DAVID BELL